Anatoly Malykhin on his meteoric rise: “I stormed into ONE and started crushing”

Anatoly Malykhin absolutely tore through the competition in his first two years in ONE Championship.

In just four fights, the Russian slugger captured two world titles and he’s now set for another piece of undisputed gold in his next outing.

Malykhin, the reigning ONE light heavyweight and interim heavyweight world champion, will take on ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar in a world title unification bout at ONE Friday Fights 22.

The colossal meeting between these two titans takes place this Friday at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

Ahead of this career-defining match, Malykhin told ONE Championship in an interview that he never imagined reaching the heights he’s at in such a short period.

“I stormed into ONE and started crushing the entire heavyweight division from the very first fight. I didn't expect, of course, that I would get a title shot and win the belt so quickly, but I worked very hard, and to this day, I continue to work hard every day, sometimes even with two or three training sessions a day.”

Malykhin made his ONE Championship debut in March 2021 knocking out Alexandre Machado in the first round. He repeated that feat six months later when he erased Amir Aliakbari to get a shot at the ONE interim heavyweight world title.

‘Sladkiy’ once again turned to his devastating striking to knock Kirill Grishenko out in the second round of their match to become the interim heavyweight world champion in February 2022.

Malykhin then captured the ONE light heavyweight world title when he dominated the once-unbeaten Reinier de Ridder at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December.